Beneficial Role of Bitter Melon Supplementation in Obesity and Related Complications in Metabolic Syndrome

Table 3

Clinical studies of bitter melon (MC).

Study design	Subject	Dose and duration	Outcome	Reference
Case study	100 moderate noninsulin dependent diabetic (NIDDM) subjects	Aqueous homogenized suspension of the vegetable pulp	Significant reduction of both fasting and postprandial serum glucose levels was observed	[77]
Case study	15 patients of either sex (52–65 years of age) of NIDDM	200 mg twice dailywith 7 days treatment plus half doses of metformin or glibenclamide or both in combination	The extract acts in synergism with oral hypoglycemics and potentiates their hypoglycemia in NIDDM	[78]
Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial	40 patients, 18 years old and above	Two capsules of M. charantia three times a day after meals, for 3 months	No significant effect on mean fasting blood sugar, total cholesterol, and weight or on serum creatinine, ALT, AST, sodium, and potassium	[79]
Multicenter, randomized, double-blind, active-control trial	The total of 143 patients were enrolled into the study; 129 patients were randomized to the either metformin (), bitter melon 500 mg/day (), bitter melon 1000 mg/day (), or bitter melon 2000 mg/day ()	Bitter melon 500 mg/day, 1000 mg/day, and 2000 mg/day or metformin 1000 mg/day for four weeks	2000 mg/day dose showed significant decline in fructosamine at week 4; 500 and 1000 mg/day did not significantly decrease fructosamine levels	[80]
Open-label uncontrolled supplementation trial	42 eligible (21 men and 21 women) with a mean age of 45.7 ± 11.4 years (23 to 63 years)	4.8 gram lyophilized bitter melon powder in capsules daily for three months	The metabolic syndrome incidence rate decreased compared to that at baseline; The waist circumference also significantly decreased after the supplementation	[81]
Two-arm, parallel, randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial	19 type 2 diabetic patients taken fruit pulp and 19 type 2 diabetic patients taken as placebo	6 g/day of MC dried-fruit pulp containing 6.26 ± 0.28 mg of charantin	Significant decline of total advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) in serum after 16 weeks of the intervention	[82]